Speaker 1: The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at
Speaker 1: the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys
Speaker 1: are having a good start to your week. Round one
Speaker 1: NBA Playoff coverage on Hoops Tonight is brought to you
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Speaker 1: these shows. We are gonna be breaking down the two
Speaker 1: games from tonight. We got the Warriors falling down two
Speaker 1: to zero and Sacramento their road struggles continue, and they're
Speaker 1: also gonna be talking about the early game in basically
Speaker 1: the first two games of that Philly series against Brooklyn.
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Speaker 1: All right, let's talk some basketball guys. So, you know
Speaker 1: the Sacramento Kings, right, whatever we want to say about
Speaker 1: them defensively, and I'm very fascinated by how well they've
Speaker 1: defended in this series. They are not a big team
Speaker 1: by any stretch of the imagination. That's why neither of
Speaker 1: these teams are, and that's why you know, I'm really
Speaker 1: concerned about either of them should they get out of
Speaker 1: this series and they face a team like Manphess or
Speaker 1: LA in the next round that are huge at almost
Speaker 1: every single position in the way, that can present a
Speaker 1: bunch of problems for them. But between these two teams,
Speaker 1: there is clearly one team that is much much more athletic,
Speaker 1: and I think you're seeing that in a bunch of
Speaker 1: specific areas of this game. Defensively, you're seeing a bad
Speaker 1: Kings team defensively that has managed to put forth a
Speaker 1: fact simile of good defense. We've talked about this a
Speaker 1: lot during the season, but the strength of the Kings
Speaker 1: defense is Daron Fox is having a good point of
Speaker 1: attack defensive year. And then they've got some guards that
Speaker 1: they can bring on bringing off the bench that are
Speaker 1: good athletes, and so even though they haven't defended well
Speaker 1: all season, in this environment, with the right level of intensity,
Speaker 1: they've been able to actually put together a good defensive effort,
Speaker 1: fueled by the strength of their home crowd, the fact
Speaker 1: that they don't necessarily need to protect the rim a
Speaker 1: ton with the approach that Golden State has been playing with.
Speaker 1: And like you know, I've always been fascinated in the
Speaker 1: NBA playoffs by the way that that change in circumstance
Speaker 1: makes certain players more valuable than other players less valuable.
Speaker 1: For instance, Davion Mitchell. Davion Mitchell is a guy who
Speaker 1: played what like seventeen to eighteen minutes a game during
Speaker 1: the regular season, has always been an intriguing defensive prospect,
Speaker 1: but never could really gain a strong foothold in that
Speaker 1: King's rotation, right, as like a guy that plays more
Speaker 1: than half the game, but it's like, can credibly guard
Speaker 1: Steph Curry equals automatic rotation minutes? Again, Steph Curry's a
Speaker 1: bona fide superstar. He's going to continue to make crazy
Speaker 1: shots and he has played very well offensively in this series,
Speaker 1: but the shot quality has not been great, and that's
Speaker 1: a credit to the defensive effort from all of the
Speaker 1: guards on Sacramento. And you know, you kind of see
Speaker 1: the flip side of that for Golden State, right, because
Speaker 1: every shot attempt from Steph Curry is this, you know,
Speaker 1: and Steph has been the one guy on the Warriors
Speaker 1: who's been able to generate some rim pressure. You saw
Speaker 1: that again in the fourth quarter of this game. You
Speaker 1: saw a little bit of it in the fourth quarter
Speaker 1: of Game one. But no one else on the roster
Speaker 1: is generating real rim pressure except for a little bit
Speaker 1: of Andrew Wiggins, Whereas on the other end of the floor,
Speaker 1: it's just one possession after the other, another play where
Speaker 1: Deer and Fox or Malik Monk is streaking down the
Speaker 1: lane towards the basket, drawing in tons of help and
Speaker 1: driving and kicking and creating all sorts of good shots.
Speaker 1: You know, the skill set elements allow you to make
Speaker 1: tough shots, but the athleticism allows you to generate easy shots.
Speaker 1: If I ask you who got the easiest shots for
Speaker 1: the Warriors tonight, I know for a fact most of
Speaker 1: you guys would say Andrew Wiggins, right, because it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: he got a post up touch against Malik Munk and
Speaker 1: he just did two pound ribbles and then he's at
Speaker 1: the basket shooting a right handed hook, you know, or oh,
Speaker 1: you just ripped through to the middle and kind of
Speaker 1: stiff armed with his left arm and just hung the
Speaker 1: ball out with his right hand and then scooped it
Speaker 1: into the basket. Because he's just a bigger, better athlete
Speaker 1: than some of the players that he's going against defensively,
Speaker 1: even when he needed to create a jump shot. It's
Speaker 1: like when Andrew Wiggins just does a hard pound dribble
Speaker 1: to his left and takes a step back, like he
Speaker 1: just gets a lot of separation because he's six's eight
Speaker 1: and he's a fantastic athlete. On this stage, when the
Speaker 1: defenses are all just at another level of intensity and
Speaker 1: focus and schematic approach, having that athletic advantage just matters.
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example. There's a very good defensive
Speaker 1: possession at the end of this game where the Warriors
Speaker 1: forced to skip pass to the weak side corner, and
Speaker 1: on that play, Klay Thompson is in help. He's got
Speaker 1: his right foot kind of on the left block, and
Speaker 1: he does a really nice close out to get out
Speaker 1: to Harrison Barnes and dissuades him from take in the three,
Speaker 1: and Harrison Barnes drives to the left kind of towards
Speaker 1: that towards the elbow, and Clay beats him to the
Speaker 1: spot and slides his feet. But Clay is six to
Speaker 1: seven and coming off of a couple of major injuries,
Speaker 1: not quite the same athlete as Harrison Barnes. Harrison Barnes
Speaker 1: just went power into a spin move back towards his
Speaker 1: right hand and finished high and soft off the glass.
Speaker 1: Because Harrison Barnes is a better athlete. And you know, again,
Speaker 1: it's one of those dynamics that I'm not sure the
Speaker 1: Warriors can flip in this series. The only way it's
Speaker 1: gonna flip is the same way it did in the
Speaker 1: finals last year. You know, Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum
Speaker 1: are better athletes than Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins as
Speaker 1: a pair, Right, Andrew Wiggins is on that level, But
Speaker 1: those two together are not the same type of athlete. Right.
Speaker 1: But because Klay Thompson, over the course of the series
Speaker 1: started winning those confrontations with Jalen Brown, it ended up
Speaker 1: being a big thing that swung the series right, and
Speaker 1: so over the course of the series. In this series
Speaker 1: is not over by the way like the Sacramento jumped
Speaker 1: up two. Oh. They're clearly a lot better defensively than
Speaker 1: we expected, but they've got to go to Golden State,
Speaker 1: and as bad as Golden State has been on the
Speaker 1: road all season, they've been that good at home, and
Speaker 1: they're gonna be a really difficult team for Sacramento to
Speaker 1: get a win there. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, I'd say it's likely that
Speaker 1: this series comes back to Sacramento at two to two.
Speaker 1: The problem is is the only way you're gonna be
Speaker 1: able to get one of those games, and you have
Speaker 1: to get one of those games. The only way they're
Speaker 1: gonna get one of those games is if they start
Speaker 1: to win some of these physical confrontations. And I'm not
Speaker 1: actually sure that it's possible. You know, when Draymond Green
Speaker 1: went out because Andrew, Here's the thing we talked about
Speaker 1: in this morning's video. Those of you guys who Warriors
Speaker 1: fans who watched our film session that we did on
Speaker 1: the Warriors this morning. I talked about how there was
Speaker 1: two possessions at the end of Game one where Andrew
Speaker 1: Wiggins and Gary Payton got stops and contained Darren Fox
Speaker 1: off of the dribble and forced him into a tough
Speaker 1: fade away over his life shoulder, and they got back
Speaker 1: to back stops which allowed them to have a chance
Speaker 1: to win the game on the other end, which they
Speaker 1: were unfortunately unable to. But that was a good sign
Speaker 1: that that was an indicator of the fact that they'd
Speaker 1: be able to get more stops in this game, and
Speaker 1: they did. Like when Wiggins and Gary Payton were on
Speaker 1: the ball in this game, they were phenomenal. But then
Speaker 1: what happens at the end of the game. Dearreon Fox
Speaker 1: knows Draymond Green is out. We'll talk about the kick
Speaker 1: him getting ejected here in a minute, but Draymond Green's out,
Speaker 1: so all he has to do is call for a
Speaker 1: ball screen, Because if Andrew Wiggins has to fight over
Speaker 1: a screen, it doesn't matter how good of an athlete
Speaker 1: he is, He's gonna get downhill. And that's Kevon Looney
Speaker 1: under the basket, not Draymond Green. Kevi On Loney is
Speaker 1: a good player on a bunch of different levels and
Speaker 1: is a bona fide championship role player, a guy who
Speaker 1: can play a little bit of starting center, a little
Speaker 1: bit of backup center, can do a lot of good things.
Speaker 1: Not in the same stratosphere as a rim protector as
Speaker 1: Draymond Green is. That's just the reality. And so it
Speaker 1: just once again the shot quality. We have to separate
Speaker 1: quality from results. The shot quality has been better for
Speaker 1: Sacramento in both games. And the only way the Warriors
Speaker 1: are gonna win on the road in Sacramento is if
Speaker 1: they can flip that dynamic. And if Sacramento is getting
Speaker 1: clear driving lanes and generating a ton of rim pressure
Speaker 1: and kicking the wide open shooters versus Steph Curry just
Speaker 1: being one of the all time greats making a bunch
Speaker 1: of hero shots. I don't like their chances, and so
Speaker 1: they've got to find a way to flip that, flip
Speaker 1: that dynamic one way or another. One other specific thing
Speaker 1: that I thought the athleticism gap is really starting to
Speaker 1: show in this series is just the is turning over
Speaker 1: the basketball. How many times today did you see one
Speaker 1: of the Warriors guards like cross half court and immediately
Speaker 1: run into ball pressure like again, like one of the
Speaker 1: advantages of what Davion Mitchell did is he just made
Speaker 1: Steph work really hard. You could tell on his last
Speaker 1: few three point shots he didn't get nearly enough lift
Speaker 1: and that was why he was missing. That's wearing him
Speaker 1: out over the course of the game with ball pressure.
Speaker 1: He's picking him up right after he crosses half court.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of plays where one of the Warriors
Speaker 1: guards then tries to throw a cross court pass, and
Speaker 1: then there's a Kings player, another great athlete that's shooting
Speaker 1: into that gap. And Malik Monk is not the best
Speaker 1: defensive player in the world, but he's a good athlete.
Speaker 1: This is kind of an athletic team. Malik Monk is
Speaker 1: very athletic deer and Fox is very athletic. Harrison Barnes
Speaker 1: at his position is a very very good athlete. Davion
Speaker 1: Mitchell in a different kind of like lateral quickness, center
Speaker 1: of gravity kind of way, is a good athlete. They're
Speaker 1: running into some problems there. They're going to have to
Speaker 1: find a way to flip that dynamic on the dreamond
Speaker 1: Green thing. I kind of I know you guys are
Speaker 1: gonna be like, oh, he works for the volume. Of
Speaker 1: course you're gonna say this, but I'm just take my
Speaker 1: word for it that I'm telling you exactly how I
Speaker 1: really feel. I think it's ridiculous that he got ejected.
Speaker 1: Have you ever like tripped and you notice like when
Speaker 1: you look down, you have a spot in mind that's
Speaker 1: like two or three feet in front of you that
Speaker 1: you plan on planting your foot, and then when you trip,
Speaker 1: like your foot doesn't get that far and you end
Speaker 1: up planting your body weight at a point between where
Speaker 1: you are in the spot that you're going. Now, did
Speaker 1: Draymond embellish it a little bit and maybe put his
Speaker 1: body weight on him a little bit? Sure? Call it
Speaker 1: a flagrant. But here's what happened. On a play that
Speaker 1: Draymond was completely uninvolved in. Sabonis got knocked over and
Speaker 1: rolled up into his legs and grabbed his leg. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: the Warriors are running the other way in transition, trying
Speaker 1: to get a bucket. Draymond's a good playmaker. A lot
Speaker 1: of those transition plays end with him trailing the play,
Speaker 1: catching the ball and then quick flowing into a dribble
Speaker 1: handoff for a guy for a wide open three. He's
Speaker 1: trying to get up the floor and Sabonis was preventing
Speaker 1: him from doing that. So, like to me, Sabonis made
Speaker 1: a moderately dirty play, and then Draymond Green made a
Speaker 1: moderately dirty play that seemed a lot worse because you
Speaker 1: think he just outwardd like just deliberately stomped on Sabonis.
Speaker 1: That's not what happened. He was trying to step forward,
Speaker 1: then he got his leg grabbed and so he ended
Speaker 1: up planting a different spot and then he embellished it
Speaker 1: and definitely played it up a little bit, and not Sabonus.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about Draymond. Like Draymond definitely like knew he
Speaker 1: was down there and planted his foot, But I don't
Speaker 1: think he thought I'm gonna stomp on Sibonis. I think
Speaker 1: he I'm tripping. I'm stepping on this dude. If I
Speaker 1: have to, I'm going down the floor. And so to
Speaker 1: give just a technical to Sabonis and then to eject
Speaker 1: Draymond from the grain the game is ridiculous, especially in
Speaker 1: a game where with him on the floor again like that.
Speaker 1: There's there's a little I'm gonna look at the lineup
Speaker 1: data tomorrow, but there's a little bit of a trend
Speaker 1: here where like when Draymond's on the floor with Gary Payton,
Speaker 1: and Andrew Wiggins. With Stephan Clay, they're getting a lot
Speaker 1: of stops and that bodes well for them, but that
Speaker 1: when you take Draymond out of the equation, they just
Speaker 1: had no chance to get stops. And like Clay, Thompson
Speaker 1: made some big shots down the stretch, Steph made some
Speaker 1: big shots down the stretch, and it just didn't matter
Speaker 1: because they couldn't get stops because you took their best
Speaker 1: defensive player off the floor. And look, here's the thing
Speaker 1: with Raymond. If you want to play the devil's advocate card,
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, dude, Sabonis initiated it. You can't get
Speaker 1: yourself kicked out of the game. So even if you
Speaker 1: want to stomp on him, even if that's what your
Speaker 1: body's trying to do, you have to try to, you know,
Speaker 1: play cool a little bit like that's fair. But I
Speaker 1: wouldn't have kicked him out there. I thought that was ridiculous.
Speaker 1: But again, right start for the Kings, I'm very impressed
Speaker 1: with him defensively. Darreon Fox is a bonafide playoff player
Speaker 1: based on the simple fact that nobody can keep him
Speaker 1: in front. There are a lot more athletic than people
Speaker 1: give him credit for One of the big things we
Speaker 1: talked about during the series is are they gonna go
Speaker 1: away from Kevin Herder and go away from Keegan Murray
Speaker 1: in favor of better defensive players, And they did. They
Speaker 1: went with Davion Mitchell and then Malik Monk has been
Speaker 1: defending pretty well in the series, but it's more of
Speaker 1: an offensive type of sub because he's also beating people
Speaker 1: off the dribble. They've got a line up there that
Speaker 1: really works. That's the bonus Barnes, Davion Mitchell, Malik Monk,
Speaker 1: and Darren Fox. That's the lineup the Warriors are gonna
Speaker 1: have to beat if they're gonna win this series, and
Speaker 1: it presents some matchup issues for them. Not over I
Speaker 1: expect the Warriors to go back and tie the series
Speaker 1: at two, but they're gonna have to find a way
Speaker 1: to win in Sacramento eventually. All right, really quickly. We're
Speaker 1: not gonna spend a ton of time on Brooklyn Philly.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'll just be honest with you guys too,
Speaker 1: Like this is one of the two series as I
Speaker 1: picked to be a sweep. Brooklyn's completely overmatched. We're not
Speaker 1: learning a ton about what Philly's capable of in one
Speaker 1: way or not. I watched the film today and I
Speaker 1: tried to come up with some notes for you guys.
Speaker 1: But the reality is we're not going to learn a
Speaker 1: ton about what Philly's capable of until they run into
Speaker 1: Boston next round. I expect them to run into Boston
Speaker 1: next round. That series is going to be incredible, Like
Speaker 1: We're just spend a lot of time on every single
Speaker 1: game in that series, but this particular series just doesn't
Speaker 1: have a ton going on. That said, a couple of
Speaker 1: specific things, as we expected. Brooklyn is hard doubling Joel
Speaker 1: Embid whenever they have a chance. When he catches the
Speaker 1: ball at the left elbow in particular, and they were
Speaker 1: spamming that to start the third quarter. He can make
Speaker 1: easy reads from there, and he had a lot of
Speaker 1: turnovers today. But want I want you guys to look
Speaker 1: past the turnovers for just a second to look at
Speaker 1: a points per possession basis when Joel Embiid has been
Speaker 1: either when Joel Embid has been double teamed in the post,
Speaker 1: so like when they straight up hard double, not like
Speaker 1: drive and draw help, but like straight up hard double.
Speaker 1: He's generated fourteen points out of that, that's one point
Speaker 1: two seven points per possession. He's also up over a
Speaker 1: point per possession in isolation when he's drawing multiple defense.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the turnovers are ugly, but everything else around
Speaker 1: it is great. A big product of that is a
Speaker 1: reason for that is just the fact that Philly has
Speaker 1: such a great spot up team. But Joel Embiid is
Speaker 1: starting to manage the double teams a little bit better
Speaker 1: every single day. Again, the turnovers need to get cut
Speaker 1: out because that hurts them in transition, but that's going
Speaker 1: to be a dynamic they're going to face, especially against Boston,
Speaker 1: which is basically just a better version of this Brooklyn team.
Speaker 1: I think they had nineteen turnovers today. Obviously, Boston is
Speaker 1: a much better transition offense team. I want to say
Speaker 1: they're converting transition offensive possessions by at like one hundred
Speaker 1: and forty offensive rating, which is insane. So you've got
Speaker 1: to find a way to take better care of the
Speaker 1: ball against Boston. James Harden I spoke very highly of
Speaker 1: him this year about how I thought it was going
Speaker 1: to be a revenge campaign, and honestly, I think he's
Speaker 1: been better than I think a lot of us would
Speaker 1: have expected this season. But one of my biggest concerns
Speaker 1: for him coming into the postseason is just is he
Speaker 1: ready for the fight? Is he ready for the competitive
Speaker 1: physicality and the fact that that regular season bullshit messing
Speaker 1: around basketball just doesn't work at that level. Well, thirty
Speaker 1: one points on twenty four shots, a ton of foul drifting,
Speaker 1: twenty assists, and nine turnovers. Keeps doing that same thing
Speaker 1: where he gets into the lane, he sticks his arm out,
Speaker 1: which like, you do that to draw a foul, but
Speaker 1: you're also exposing the basketball, so you're dramatically increasing your
Speaker 1: risk for turnover in the hopes that you're gonna get
Speaker 1: to the foul line. I just I think it's I
Speaker 1: think it's just unseerious basketball for this level. So I'm
Speaker 1: hoping that before we get to Boston that James Harden
Speaker 1: locks in a little bit and gets a little bit
Speaker 1: sharper on those details. But you know, Tyre's Maxey and
Speaker 1: Tobias Harris had picked up the slack if eighty seven
Speaker 1: points in the first two games. Tyrese Maxey got red
Speaker 1: hot from three in the second half of this game.
Speaker 1: You know, tyres Maxy is an underrated work ethic guy.
Speaker 1: He's like anybody you've talked to, anybody who knows anything
Speaker 1: about the Sixers or is close to the Sixers like.
Speaker 1: He's a workout warrior, a guy who's in the gym
Speaker 1: working his ass off every single day. And that's impressive
Speaker 1: because his foundational skill is his athleticism is straight lines.
Speaker 1: In his ability to beat people off the dribble, him
Speaker 1: building out a like a completely respectable pull up jump
Speaker 1: shot has turned him into a damn good NBA player.
Speaker 1: And if he's gonna play this well, then that's gonna
Speaker 1: go a long way towards covering for any sort of
Speaker 1: shortcomings that James Harden might have. Like I said, we're
Speaker 1: gonna talk a lot more Sixers as we get into
Speaker 1: the second round. Tomorrow, I'm traveling back from Canada to Portland,
Speaker 1: so I am going to be completely off tomorrow, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna be covering the Tuesday Night slate on early
Speaker 1: Wednesday morning, and then we have big plans for Wednesday
Speaker 1: night after Game two of Lakers Grizzlies. As always, I
Speaker 1: sincerely appreciate you guys and rocking with me and supporting
Speaker 1: the show, and I will see you guys on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: the volume